Finding freedom through autonomy

Turning dreams into reality

Tom McLoughlin, founder of SEO Travel, had a dream: to build a successful multi-faceted agency. Somewhere that was a fun place to work and where he had more freedom to step back from time to time.

After working with Pala, Tom made his dream a reality:

• The company grew from 8 employees to 22.
• He transformed his standalone travel marketing company into an thriving creative agency that has established a new industry event ‘The Travel Sauce‘, founded The Marketists (a recruitment agency), and are soon to publish a book.
• Company engagement scores increased to 75% after becoming a more vibrant workplace.
• They introduced ‘Wonderful Wednesdays’ (an extra day off when you need it), a ‘Workation‘ scheme (spend one month a year working from anywhere in the world), and staff sabbaticals.
• Thanks to their great new ways of working, SEO Travel landed a place on the Great Places to Work 2024 list.
• And…building an autonomous team allowed Tom to spend the whole of August off work, adventuring with his family.

An appetite for change

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tom’s business was hit hard, initially losing 80% of their clients. The breathing space that came as a result helped Tom to pause and reflect. If he was going to achieve his long-term goals, he needed to step back from the day-to-day operations of the business. To achieve his dreams of having a diverse creative agency that went beyond exclusively social marketing, he needed space to focus on the business strategy and for his team to take the reins and flex their creative muscles.

But how could Tom do this, when he struggled to “get his claws out of the business”?

Taking a leap of faith

Tom started working with Pala in 2021. The aim was to find ways for Tom to step back and let the team have more autonomy, giving everyone more freedom and making the culture of the company more dynamic. Simple.

To make this happen, we got to work on changing how the company communicated internally. We focussed on moving to open and transparent communication channels that helped to share responsibility across the team. This made a great initial impact, because everyone could now access the information they needed to take action and make decisions, freeing up the pressure point of Tom as the leader.

Our next step was to work towards Tom taking one month off over the summer – this felt like a big leap of faith for Tom! We supported him with his concerns through coaching and open conversations. The team held collaborative meetings to identify potential issues that could arise in Tom’s absence, and collectively work through solutions. With this shared responsibility, the team created the space for Tom to step away from the business for an extended period. For his first summer off, Tom took himself to Spain – when he came back, everything was still standing, he had a happy team and he returned more energised.

Changing the format of their team meetings also led to significant change and opened up a creative flurry of ideas. Where there was space for different voices to be heard, the seeds of innovation were sown. The idea of company sabbaticals, a travel event and even a new recruitment company, all came from these new open meetings. This change in work culture and structure meant that SEO Travel, a travel marketing company has now grown into Rombald Group, a creative agency that is an umbrella for a number of different ventures.

The future looks bright

The future looks fun, free and creative for Tom, Claire and the now Rombald Group team. Their agency is growing, they now have a book in development.

Best of all, Tom gets to spend more time with his wife and business partner Claire and their kids, going on fun adventures and dreaming of more exciting business opportunities.

Through learning to let go a little, Tom gave himself the freedom he needed to step back from his business, gain perspective and become more effective in his leadership role.

This empowerment has led his team to shape their work and workplace into something more positive, which in turn has helped the business grow.

As we write, Tom and the team recently shared how they made it onto the Great Places to Work list again (2025) and how Tom managed to grow an excellent moustache during his month off in France over the summer – great work Tom!

We can’t wait to see where Tom, Claire and the team at the now Rombald Group, end up next. Thanks for being such a great team to work with.

Would you like to set your team free and help your business grow?